I'm going to start some discusions on several Civ Advances that I have questions about. Party becasue I'm curious about a few and party because I'm doing research for (Gasp) a Civ game of my own.

First Card is: Cultural Ascendancy

I don't really understand the historic precedent for this card. It seems to relate to a concept that came WAY later in civilizations and I was wondering if this advance coresponds to any particular specific civlization (as others do)?

Hey Mat,

I agree, there are a few cards like this. Monotheism (not in the Judaic sense, but in the Christian sense as portrayed on the card and by its ability), Fundamentalism, and I think Trade Empire seems out of place. THere was a lot of trading, but trade empires started later with the exploration of the far east?

It would probably be easier to extend the timeline a little.

Yes I agree about extending the timeline. Most of the reponses I'm likely to get regarding other card questions could probably best be answered by extending the timeline. While not historically accurate, it doesn't make the game more interesting.

I'm torn because the cards definitely add interest and options to a game that was somewhat limited in choices for civiliation advances. Players really didn't have a choice before about which expensive cards to buy. The greater range gives players flexibility and makes competing strategies a factor.

When considering these cards, realize that there are many different levels of things. Consider a card like "Trade Empire" to be a "Trade Empire I" card which could be replace in medieval times with a "Trade Empire II" card. We normally associate cultural/trade/military dominance with what we know (ala current American cultural dominance or the colonial British trade dominance) but consider in each age there was an empire dominating in some aspect of arts/crafts/religion/science/military.

Here is a thematic explanation for some cards:
Trade Empire: This is to focus in on empires who are known as traders such as Saba, Minoan and Phoenician civilizations. This sort of represensents dominating the Silk Road or the east-west sea routes. This is for a civ who wants to focus on being a tradeing empire in the last few turns.

Cultural Ascendancy: Late in the ancient area the Greeks reached a pinnacle of philosophic and artistic prominence not exceeded in the western part of the work for over a thousand years. Even during the time of Roman Empire Greek culture was widely assumed to be superior (if weak) and many empires from Persia to Egypt to Rome assimilated the culture of Hellas into their own. Even today our western culture is tied in closely with the Greeks point of view. In this sense you could say that for the west - Hellas "won" culturally. This card is supposed to represent this sort of cultural pinnacle.

Monothiesm: This is suppost to represent the very beginnings of christianity when it spread very quickly but can also represent what would have happened if the Jews were more open to converstion of other cultures. This card represents the possiblity that monothiestic religions focused on missionary style coversions could have occured slightly ealier. In some games Monothiesm occurs ealier than the last couple turns in some never.

Fundamentalism: I'm not really pleased with the name of the this card - but couldn't come up with anything better. This is basically to simulate cultures that were antagonistic and not tolerant of other religions such as Assyria, Judea, Egypt. Those who would not tolerate cities being "out of line" from a religious/cultrual standpoint. It's a straitforward card usually picked up by people on thier way to monotheism. This is NOT suppost to represent islamic fundamenatlism (which only really came about in this last couple hundred years). Rather this represents a step up from Theocracy representing any civilization (and there were quite a few) with a faithful and fervernt religious cultrual stance.

As far as the in-game benefit/cost ratio of these cards... well that can be debated. My inital thoughts are that trade empire perhaps needs to be improved or changed (I've never heard of anyone buying it) but I'd be interested to hear more opinions however.